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Mets' Ike Davis admits to concealing injury last season

New York Mets first baseman Ike Davis admits he concealed a nagging oblique strain from the team last year but claims the injury wasn’t a factor in his poor performance.

Speaking Monday, Davis confirmed a story that first appeared Sunday on the New York Post’s website.

“It’s just an overblown thing. Everyone has injuries and then they get hurt. So it was pointless to write an article,” Davis said. “I sucked last year because I sucked. It’s not because I had an injury. You always have injuries. And now it just looks bad. I didn’t want the article to come out, and it did.”

Mets manager Terry Collins said he was “as surprised as anybody” when he heard that Davis had been playing with an injury. Collins said he will address the situation privately with Davis.

After a busy off-season in which they added Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo to their lineup, and more than a week into spring training, the Rangers on Monday added a year to Washington’s contract through the 2015 season.

Washington is the team’s winningest manager with 611 wins over seven seasons, and led Texas to its only two World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011. The Rangers have averaged more than 91 wins over the last five seasons.

ALEX WHO? Union head Tony Clark says the players’ association has no issues going forward with suspended New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

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Rodriguez sued Major League Baseball and the players’ association in January in an effort to overturn a season-long suspension, then dropped the lawsuit this month. Rodriguez initially was suspended for 211 games in August by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, and the union filed a grievance to overturn the discipline. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz shortened the penalty after a hearing the three-time AL MVP claimed was flawed.

Clark says “the page has been turned.”

The new union head met Monday with Yankees players.

YU OK: Yu Darvish says he felt a little awkward facing hitters in a game-like situation for the first time this spring.-

What matters is that the Texas Rangers ace felt no discomfort in his back.

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Darvish threw his scheduled inning Monday to start the Rangers’ first intrasquad game of spring training. He faced four batters, striking out one while another reached on an error.

The Japanese pitcher dealt with inflammation from nerve irritation in his lower back for the final six weeks last season. He had an injection two days after the season. He was still 13-9 with a 2.93 ERA and a majors-best 277 strikeouts while finishing second in the AL Cy Young Award voting.

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